Wcs Graduate Scholarship Program

Fonseca Leadership Program in Africa

These high-profile and prestigious Fellowships will honor the late Gustavo Fonseca, who contributed significantly to biodiversity conservation over the course of his career, and will be awarded to candidates from GEF recipient countries in Africa who epitomize:

• Deep and genuine commitment to conservation in their country/region
• Appropriate work experience (at least five years) with a national conservation NGO, international conservation NGO, government, private sector, academia
• Strong leadership potential
• Collaboration and an ability to work with diverse groups and perspectives across issue and sector boundaries
• Self-motivation and strong work ethic
• Applied focus, and the nation/region will benefit from future expertise in the topic under consideration
• Is at the right time in their career for further academic pursuit and maximal conservation impact, and will be capable of success at a respected institute of higher education.

Only nominated applicants will be considered, no unsolicited applications are reviewed.

All candidates must be:

• Nominated by a pre-approved/eligible nominator, including government officials; senior officials from intergovernmental agencies, academic professors, senior conservationists within the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Conservation International (CI); senior conservationists within select national NGOs;
• A citizen of a GEF recipient country in Africa

Candidates do not need to have been accepted in any graduate program in order to be eligible, but should plan to begin studies no later than October of the year following their award.

The nomination/application process will occur in two stages.

1. The first stage is the call for nominations which will open in January of each year (please check this website in January for the appropriate nomination forms), with a deadline in February. The WCS GSP Selection Committee convenes to review applications and will select a subset of candidates for the second stage.
2. The second stage is the application phase. Invited candidates submit an application (the application form is sent directly to the nominator and candidate), with a deadline in April of each year. The WCS GSP Selection Committee reconvenes to review and select recipients. Notification of decisions occurs by June.

For questions related to eligibility or the nomination process, please email Kate Mastro (kmastro@wcs.org).